We started at The Arterial Tavern. The thing about neighborhood taverns is they have their cast of regulars and if you're not one of them, you stand out. The ten or fifteen stools around the bar were filled with unfamiliar faces. It felt strange to be in a new place but we soon had two cold beers in front of us. A friendly bartender began telling us Tour de Pearl stories. An older lady sitting next to us asked about our Tour cards. She was mostly curious about the brewery itself. "Now, where is it?" she asked. When she realized it was in the old La Crosse Footwear building, she introduced herself and her friend. They were Bernice and Betty. Betty told us she worked for fifty-five years at La Crosse Footwear. Fifty-five years? I was doing the math in my head and lost track of what she was saying. How old is this lady? I just kept looking at her dumbfounded. She'd spent her entire working life there, I realized. As a person who's shuttled between 13 or 14 different jobs so far, it was just hard to fathom. "Well, I probably should have looked for another job," she said. "I probably could have earned more." But she said she was happy there. And her friend Betty had worked there 40 plus years. As we were talking, the bartender pulled out one of Pearl Street Brewery's recent seasonal brews. The Rubber Mills Pils is named after La Crosse Footwear (formerly named La Crosse Rubber Mills) and has a rubber boot logo on the label. Betty and Bernice became very excited when they saw the label. Betty pointed to the bottom of the boot and said this was the part she was responsible for making. We bought them a beer, they bought us a beer. As the bartender handed my husband his beer, Betty yelled, "Give it a good home!"
Here is the face of La Crosse Rubber Mills. They need their own beer label.
Clearly this would be the highlight of our Tour de Pearl experience. We biked across the river to our next destination with beautiful sunshine and ideal biking conditions.
Sand sculpture on Pettibone Beach.
Pettibone Boat Club, Tiki Bar
We sat at the Tiki Bar and talked with the bartender, watching boaters glide by. The big warm late August sun dropped in the sky.
Our next stop featured very loud, drunken bar patrons but a good jukebox. Our last stop was fittingly quiet, sending us on our way home. In the end, we only made it to a handful of the Tour de Pearl spots. We captured the spirit of the Tour though. Biking around town and sharing stories and hospitality was a blast. Now if we can get Betty & Bernice into Pearl Street Brewery for some photos I think we've got ourselves a new marketing campaign.
